CANADA: Immitracker vs. IRCC, Immigration Insights Q3 (July – September)
Immigration has been a key driver of Canada’s population and economic growth, but the data hasn’t always been easy to measure. Thanks to the users at Immitracker, we’re now able to comb through real application data and highlight insights based on actual processing times for Canada’s most popular immigration programs.
For each visa and immigration program and citizenship, the IRCC provides average processing time estimates. These official estimates by program can be found here. From the cases that get logged in the Canadian trackers on Immitracker, we noticed that the actual processing times can vary significantly from the ones presented by the IRCC. The programs that Immitracker reviews are from the most popular trackers and include:
Key Report Takeaways
Overall, Immitracker data consistently shows faster processing times than IRCC’s official estimates, usually by a couple months across many programs. However, processing times vary widely, with extreme outliers in nearly every category impacting averages, even when most cases are completed much faster. Finally, while some programs like PNP and CEC display relatively stable and consistent timelines, other programs such as FSW and outland spousal sponsorships remain inconsistent and hard to predict.
Below are some of the most interesting observations we made based on this data:
Citizenship processing times back in Q3 2025 were around 6 months - significantly quicker than what the IRCC website was estimating and what it looks like applicants are experiencing in 2026 (based on our community feedback)
Inland Spousal Sponsorship remains very consistent with almost no variation in timelines from case-to-case. It is also quite slower than the Outland Spousal Sponsorship with an almost 100 day extra wait time
Processing timeline length and variability from case-to-case has increased for FSW. CEC and PNP applications both are on average processed at least a couple of months faster
In the sections below, we break down our Immitracker processing time insights by individual program including the quantity of cases that were analyzed and the number of days it took on average for the case to go from application submission to the final processing milestone (Passport Request / PPR or Oath Letter).
Processing Time Analysis by Program
Citizenship
Immitracker observed a total of 44 applicants for the Citizenship program that received final approval. The process time took an average of 182 days or 6 months, starting from the submission date to the day they received their Oath letter.
The longest case of this quarter took 792 days to process from a Brazilian national, this wait time is close to the longest case of last quarter (744 days from China).
For further insights, the three shortest cases of this quarter are 115 days from Vietnam, 118 days from Iran, and 123 days from India. Lastly, the two more of the longest cases include Indian nationals with processing times of 287 and 225 days.
In comparison to the official estimations from IRCC, our observed times are much shorter than their average of 13 months.
Spousal Sponsorship
For the Spousal Sponsorship Program, we accounted for 45 applicants of inland and outland combined that received their PPR, 40 being outland and five being inland.
Inland processing times averaged 409 days or 13.6 months while Outland wait times displayed an average of 317 days or 10.6 months. Combined however, the average came out to 179 days, or 6 months.
When taking a look at the longest and shortest individual case for outland sponsorships, we observed the three longest cases coming from India, Colombia and Pakistan at 536, 280, and 228 days respectively. The shortest cases included three Indian nationals at 57, 82, and 87 days.
Inland spousal sponsorship has very little case timeline variability, with most cases taking over 400 days to complete processing.
Immitracker shows much faster response times when compared to IRCC estimates which state around 14 months for outland and a staggering 21 months for inland sponsorships.
Express Entry Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs)
During the third quarter, we observed a total of 26 cases that received their PPR through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Processing times showed an average of 134 days or 4.5 months to receive approval. This statistic is a significant decrease from last quarter's average of 218 days.
The three longest individual cases were all much higher than the recorded averages. The longest case being 547 days or nearly two years of an Iranian national, followed by an Indian national at 465 days, and lastly another Iranian case at 457 days. The three shortest wait times observed were from two Indian applicants with 62 and 73 days respectively followed by an Irish national with a wait time of 87 days.
The IRCC’s official estimates declare an average processing time of seven months which do not align with the discrepancies found this quarter.
Express Entry Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW) Program
Moving on to Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) applicants, we observed a total of 11 cases during the third quarter that received their PPR. This number sets a record low for the site, exceeding the previous low of 16 cases in the first quarter. Wait times averaged around 203 days or 6.8 months.
This count is an unusual deviation from last quarter’s average; it’s nearly double the amount (106 days). The outlier that impacted this average was from China which took 1,021 days to process! This is nearly three years, making it the longest individual case.
When taking a closer look at the four longest cases, the outlier from China is followed by Senegal with a wait time of 220 days, India with a wait time of 168 days and another individual from China at 160 days.
The shortest cases for FSW applicants include two Indian nationals with wait times of 28 and 62 days respectively followed by a French national with 97 days in processing time.
Although the average wait time seems long, it falls close in line with IRCC’s estimated processing time of seven months.
Express Entry Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Program
A total of 70 applicants for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program received their PPR, averaging about 128 days or 4.3 months in processing times. This is a slight decrease compared to processing times in Q3 (153 days).
Some cases stood out as having unusually long wait times, such as the longest being an Iranian national at 554 days, followed by a Madagascar national at 327 days, and the third being a Yemeni national at 317 days.
A glance at the shortest cases shows much shorter wait times of 41, 48, and 49 days from India, the Dominican Republic and the United States respectively.
Immitracker’s average is still a bit faster than the IRCC’s estimate which was six months for the Experience Class Program.
If you’re interested in getting a copy of our data analysis summaries, you can download them for free at the following link!
Looking for processing time insights for other programs? Check out the Immitracker trackers or reach out to us through our Contact Form and we can help you find the answers!
